I wonder if Ian can build a M5 with dual HP speakers instead of the 5" mid

Still have a crossover for mid and a three way


Kinda, like the M22 but with dual HP speakers
now that I'd upgrade to

That would be an M3 with higher power handling and a lower, more linear bottom end.

Like a mini M50?

Ian made an M40 at one point - floor standing cabinet with tweeter and 6.5 woofer.

Now wouldn't that be something for a bookshelf. Be the same as the M22 which I have, but a little more balls.

Hmm kinda But, I do not want floor standing. I like the Bookshelf I can put them any where up front with no limitations. and I can place them better than the M80 I had which I found if I sat on the floor it was good. But soon as I sat in a chair from 10 ft away the action was around my waste. If in stereo the singer sound like she was coming from below the tv. Now I have the M22 23" off the floor and dead center of the tv the imaging is.
But, anyways just thought it be great bottom end and the mids would have all kind of head room and you could use that second mid to hit and blend really well

I think this was discussed when either M100 or M5HP came out, and the response was that the HP driver could not reach up high enough to cross over with the tweeter in a two-way system.

Still enjoying my M40's. I have heard relatively few speakers in anything like their price range with such a smooth, extended low end response.

This is one of the big problems, the HP driver really needs another driver to get it to the tweeter. It would also be a grossly undersized cabinet for all those woofers which means an active system with a DSP would be the only way to get the maximum potential out of the woofers.

Whoops... I missed the "dual HP speakers" part...

I still have the occasional urge to saw off the bottom of one of my M5HP pairs then graft on a larger cabinet to get the tuning more like a single-woofer M100.

Cross-breeding like that will result in a genetic mutation of the family of curves. If you do the math on your proposal, you'll find the lows will sound spatially compressed. The net effect is they'll sound like they emanated from your 'nads.

Is that good or bad ?

That depends on if the listener has hypogonadism or macroorchidism.

OK, so could you go with the HP woofer and just a normal woofer from the Mx0 line and the tweeter.

or would that be the same issue.

Are you thinking about a 2-1/2 way where the normal woofer covers deep bass as well, or a regular 3 way ?

I am thinking a M5hp but replace the 5.5 driver with the 6.5" that is on the M60/80

Like the M60 except maybe 400hz and 2.2khz

My best guess would be that the difference between the woofers capabilities, distance between the crossover points and the cabinet would limit the effectiveness of your proposed design.

Interesting thought though. I like looking/listening to "radical" designs. I have always loved the Totem Mani 2, which is a small bookshelf that has great low end response. This employs a dual 7" woofers - one behind the other in the cabinet.

Here's one for you:

Speaker Flowers

That certainly is something!

Hi TroyD,

The 5.25" driver in the M5HP is already a woofer, not a midrange, so I completely agree with your thinking. But there are good reasons for the overall family of curves to keep the second woofer at 5.25".

After many listening sessions with the M5, I don't hear any problems with having to electrically cross the HP driver to a midrange. The mid-woofer in the M5 is very dispersive and improves the directivity and sense of space. A speaker with an HP driver or two crossed to a tweeter would certainly improve the bass compared to an M3 but wouldn't improve directivity over a dedicated mid. If you're thinking of a driver that has the HP and mid-woofer properties, that would certainly solve some problems particularly for active systems.

Seen this after, lol

If the HP woofer could play up into the mid-range, it would add up to a more sensitive speaker. I do find there's some music and movies recorded at a lower level and I have to turn my Onk up to -5 to -10 with the M5. With the M80v2, I never had to go above -10. I may now be running out of headroom on the Onk. I'd never go back to the M80v2 though.